1955 Ford F-100 Pickup Truck - Five Decades Of Fun

Back in 1960, Doug Wickline bought an almost new '55 Ford truck that spent its few years on the road as a service truck for the Ohio Bell Telephone Company. It was a basic work truck-like most trucks back then-and was Army green with a six-cylinder, three-speed, and heavy-duty overload springs.

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Doug quickly had the Ford painted turquoise and put it back to work hauling wood and used appliances since he was a Westinghouse repairman at the time. Then, he brought it with him when he got a job at a service station and used the F-100 as a, well, service truck. Even though Doug got the most out of the '55, he kept it in good shape and always parked it inside. At one point he sold the truck to a co-worker, but luckily was able to buy it back after about a year. The co-worker let the truck "go" while he had it, so after Doug fixed some things, he painted it dark blue and had it reupholstered to match. From here Doug would just use the Ford for fishing and deer hunting up until 2001.

It was at this point that Doug says he decided he wanted the old truck made into a street rod. The Ford was still nice, straight, and rust-free, so it should have been an easy transformation, right? Wrong. He took the '55 to Jeff's Automotive & Customizing near Doug's home in Ohio and they started the "rodstoration" and bought most of the new parts it would need. But after a year and a half of the shop not doing much to it, Doug pulled it out of there and took it to Scott's Rod & Race Fab in Thornville, Ohio.

Once it was at Scott's, Scott and his team got busy trying to pick up where the other shop left off. They installed the Fatman Mustang II IFS and fitted it with a Unisteer manual rack, Ridetech Shock Waves, and discs from Aerospace Components. Out back, Scott's built a custom four-link setup with a unique rearend locator for the mini spool-equipped 9-inch, installed another set of Shock Waves, and two more Aerospace Components calipers and drilled rotors.

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Even though the stock sheetmetal was very nice to begin with, there a few custom touches to be done yet. The firewall was recessed for the 471-blown Ford Racing GT40 351 engine, polished aluminum inner fenders were built as well as custom running boards, there are one-off bed corner pockets, tailgate latches, and taillights to name a few. Scott's also built a walnut bed floor that raises using an airbag to expose the gas tank.

The truck was painted black at the other shop, but Scott and Doug decided on respraying it in a light Sherwin Williams color called Mocha Frost Metallic. Once all this was done, the truck went to Shawn at Appleman Interiors to have a full leather interior stitched up. A bench seat from RodDoors was covered in saddle brown leather along with custom door and kick panels, the headliner, and an underdash panel. Shawn also made a custom carpet kit from a nice woven bronze color. The truck now sits on 18- and 20-inch Billet Specialties instead of its old stock 16x4 steel wheels and bias-ply tires.

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Doug is lucky/smart enough to have held onto the truck for the last 50 years and has now done exactly what he wanted with it thanks to Scott's Rod & Race Fab. He doesn't haul much wood in it now, but does pick up plenty of "thumbs"!